Monday, 19 April 2010

Another new bridge

"The cycle path between Muiden and Diemen is an important route for commuters, school-children and recreational use. This new bridge is a crucual link in regional and national cycle route networks, as it is one of the few places to cross the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal by bike."

I have cycled over the existing bridge. You didn't have to cycle on the motorway, there was already a parallel road for local slower traffic on the bridge. However, this wasn't for bicycles only and it will be a big improvement to have a separate path. A big boost to subjective and actual safety.

The new bridge is 318 metres long and 4.6 metres wide. It is 9 metres above the water, enough that container ships can pass beneath the bridge. Built of steel and to match the existing bridge, the new bridge cost 21 million euros.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

"This new bridge is a crucual link in regional and national cycle route networks, as it is one of the few places to cross the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal by bike."

Funny how that makes it seem like bikes have a harder time crossing the canal than other traffic... by my reckoning, all road bridges over the canal are usable by cyclists (generally with a segregated path), plus two bike-only ferries (see www.voetveren.nl) and a bike path on the railway bridge near Weesp.counk

Most but not all bridges across the Amsterdam-Rijn Canal are accessible to bikes. The A27 near Houten (and the A27 across the Lek river) are car only. There are a few railroad only bridges.

Of course, near Amsterdam all bridges are accessible to bikes. That doesn't mean that the canal isn't a major pain in the you-know-where when you need to get across. For Amsterdam-Almere this particular link is a pretty large improvement.

Also - any solid barrier like canal or river is more of an obstruction to a bike than a car because an extra, say, 5 miles is much more significant to a bike (or even more so to pedestrians) than cars. So the more crossings the better.

Well, I just hope this bridge was worth it, because it sounds like a lot of money was spent on a route that wasn't that bad to begin with. (I'm not familiar with either the old or the new situation.) But I do know that cycling advocates don't always have their priorities straight.

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